Apple, Labels Giving Artists The Shaft

A new class action lawsuit is upon us and yet again, Apple is the target. This time, independent music label Dawg Music is suing Apple, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music for selling its catalog without consent or compensation. The two major labels here have not only screwed Dawg Music out of royalty checks, they’ve also made illegal hard copies of music not owned by them. Piracy, anyone?

Several online music retailers such as iTunes and Napster are also guilty by association. The suit claims that the retailers are guilty because they sold songs that were illegally acquired. Plus, all the money from online sales is going right to the middlemen: Universal and Warner – meaning Dawg Music gets no money from all of these sales. Dawg Music expects $150,000 from each defendant for each piece of work whose copyright was violated. Sounds a bit high, though I’d love to see the big, major labels get screwed for once.